Authorities--Vedas--Brahmanas--Social condition of Vedic India-- Arts--Ranks--War--Vedic fetishism--Ancestor worship--Date of Rig- Veda Hymns doubtful--Obscurity of the Hymns--Difficulty of interpreting the real character of Veda--Not primitive but sacerdotal--The moral purity not innocence but refinement.

CHAPTER VIII.

-- INDIAN MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN.

Comparison of Vedic and savage myths--The metaphysical Vedic account of the beginning of things--Opposite and savage fable of world made out of fragments of a man--Discussion of this hymn-- Absurdities of Brahmanas--Prajapati, a Vedic Unkulunkulu or Qat-- Evolutionary myths--Marriage of heaven and earth--Myths of Puranas, their savage parallels--Most savage myths are repeated in Brahmanas.